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This episode invites listeners to engage in a meaningful past year review, turning away from traditional resolutions toward a more insightful approach to personal growth. By exploring the themes of beginner's mind, questioning assumptions, and the importance of consilience, Dr. Dirk Winter provides a framework for navigating mental health and self-discovery in 2025.

• Dissecting the concept of a past year review 
• Sharing personal peaks and lows from 2024 
• Introducing guiding themes for 2025: beginner's mind, questioning assumptions, and consilience 
• Exploring the significance of various healing modalities 
• Challenging traditional mental health assumptions 
• Encouraging listeners to conduct their own past year review and set meaningful intentions 

Go ahead, do your past year review, get yourself maybe into some beginner's mind question patterns, look for areas of consilience, or come up with your own ideas or mantras for the coming year.

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Produced by Dirk Winter

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The Internal Family Systems (IFS) Level I training is an experiential group learning process that teaches us how to identify and heal traumatized parts of ourselves and others.  In October 2023 I began this training after having recently received a prostate cancer diagnosis.  This episode begins a multi - part series in which I introduce you to fascinating healers I met during my Level I training, beginning with Jory Agate my Lead Trainer.

Jory is a minister, IFS lead trainer, a kind and gifted healer, and so much more.  In this episode she offers a compelling narrative of how IFS therapy reaches beyond conventional boundaries, touching the lives of clergy, trans and queer communities, and trauma survivors. Together, we explore connections between faith and therapeutic healing.  Join me as I begin my journey into the land of IFS and begin to transform into an IFS therapist myself.

Timestamps
00:17 Introducing Jory Agate.
07:30 What is IFS?
12:40 Spirituality and IFS.
15:00 How Jory became a healer.
21:00 How Jory found IFS and healed her trauma.
32:00 Jory describes her professional practice.
36:00 What does a session with Jory look like?
39:00 Connecting IFS, Meaning, and Healing.
47:00 Connecting through shared Exiles, and wrap up.

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This podcast is NOT MEDICAL ADVICE and is NOT AFFILIATED WITH ANY INSTITUTIONS.

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Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) is a type of therapy that views the normal human mind as an internal family of inner conscious beings.  In this episode we unpack the key IFS concepts of 'Exiles,' 'Firefighters,' and the 'Self,' offering insights into how our childhood experiences shape our inner dynamics and how we can harmonize our mental orchestra by putting the 'Self' back into our mind's conductor seat. This episode sets the stage for a multiple episode series that brings you with me into my IFS level I training experience and community.

Timestamps
0:14 - Introducing Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS).
5:30 - Definition of Consciousness and Multiplicity.
9:45 - Historical Perspectives and Evidence for Multiplicity.
12:45 - Exiles and Firefighters.
16:00 - The IFS Self
19:20 - Blending and Unblending.
20:40 - Evidence for the IFS model of the mind.
23:00 - IFS Explanation of Psychopathology.
28:55 - Healing and Rewiring Through IFS.
30:30 - The Unburdening Ceremony in IFS.
31:00 - Bruce Ecker and memory reconsolidation
34:00 - Ten things I like about IFS.
42:00 - A caveat and some disadvantages.

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Dr. Bliss Lewis is a child and adult psychiatrist, expert in integrative and alternative treatments, and creator of Mind Body 7, one of the most innovative and successful group psychotherapy practices in New York.  She learned natural healing approaches as a child in in Russia and Poland, then combined these interests with modern Western medical training at Harvard, Columbia and NYU.   She also has passion for dance, music, yoga, meditation, and her curiosity and creativity have allowed her to build heart-centered practices and holistic wellness communities around these interests. Discover how trauma-informed care, self-compassion, and artistic expression can guide you towards a more fulfilling existence. 

Learn more about Dr. Bliss Lewis at:
https://www.mindbody7.com
https://www.youtube.com/@DrBlissLewis

Learn more about Developing Meaning Podcast at:
https://www.developingmeaning.com

Timestamps
0:00:17 Exploring Integrative Psychiatry With Dr. Bliss-Lewis
0:11:59 Personal Growth Through Dance and Travel
0:27:14 Exploring Integrative Healing Modalities
0:45:49 Building Integrative Psychiatry Group Practice
0:59:52 Exploring Meaning and Life Direction
1:13:00 Meaning and Life Rapid Fire Questions
1:17:02 Finding Meaning Through Values and Self-Compassion
1:23:00 How Bliss Sets her Life Intention

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This show was produced by Dirk Winter and Violet Chernoff

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Please enjoy this guided six minute coherent breathing exercise led by Dr. RIchard Brown, co-creator of Breath Body Mind.

This is a spontaneous demonstration taken out of our longer Episode 12 Interview in order for you to be able to chose the right time and place to do this exercise.

For more information on Dr. Brown's approaches to breathing listen to our full lenght episode 12, or go to www.breathbodymind.com.

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For thousands of years  breathing has been used to heal trauma, optimize health, and build connection.  Dr. Richard Brown has spent his life mastering these techniques, and is also an expert in integrative psychiatry, and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia.  He has co-authored over 100 scientific articles, chapters, and award winning books on applying these techniques to heal anxiety, trauma, and optimize health.  Together with his wife, Dr. Patricia Gerbarg, he has co-created the Breath-Body-Mind organization, which trains health care providers in using breathing techniques to heal health workers and trauma survivors all over the world, including places like Ukraine, Rawanda, Sudan, and Turkey.  In this episode you will learn how childhood bullying led him to pursue martial arts, and learn techniques that we all can use to heal, optimize health, and find joy.

For more information visit:
www.Breath-Body-Mind.com and
www.breathbodymindfoundation.org.

Timestamps
00:00:18 - Breath Techniques With Dr. Brown
00:14:06 - Martial Arts Journey Through Life
00:27:06 - Breathing Techniques in Spiritual Practices
00:41:18 - Global Healing Through Breath Practices
00:55:14 - Optimizing Breathing Techniques for Wellness
01:08:58 - Global Impact of Breath Practices
01:15:53 - Transformative Power of Breathing Practices
01:21:09 - Healing Trauma Through Breathing Techniques
01:27:49 - Exploring Breath Practices and Global Impact

Produced by Dirk Winter and Violet Chernoff

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Deb Dana is a master healer, teacher,  author, and the creator of a unique polyvagal-informed approach to therapy that is based on The Polyvagal Theory of Dr. Stephen Porges.

In this episode you will learn about the neuroscience of human connection, and how our autonomic nervous system is composed of three distinct internal states that determine how we feel and how we create meaning.

Learn more about Deb Dana's work and workshops at www.rhythmofregulation.com

Timestamps:
00:00:18 Understanding Polyvagal Theory and Nervous System
00:18:07 Early Influences and Therapy Modalities
00:34:15 The Power of Polyvagal Theory
00:50:16 Healing Trauma Through Nervous System
00:56:00 Exploring Mental Health Paradigm Shifts
01:05:38 The Meaning of Life and Connection
01:14:13 Exploring Healing and Connection With Experts

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Produced by Dr. Dirk Winter and Violet Chernoff

Developing Meaning is NOT MEDICAL ADVICE and NOT AFFILIATED WITH ANY INSTITUTIONS.  Learn more at DevelopingMeaning.com.

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Dr. April Minjarez is the only therapist I know who is both experienced at healing infant trauma and an end of life doula.  She is also an expert in multiple trauma healing modalities including Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and an amazing mentor, teacher, and healer.

In this episode you will hear how a terrifying experience with gangs in middle school inspired April to become a therapist.  You will also learn how EMDR therapy stimulates healing by reprocessing components of traumatic memories, and how this modality can integrate ketamine journeys.  Also, you will learn April's compelling one word answer to my question about the meaning of life.

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Produced by Dirk Winter and Violet Chernoff

Developing Meaning is NOT MEDICAL ADVICE and NOT AFFILIATED WITH ANY INSTITUTIONS

Timestamps
0:19 - Finding Meaning in Therapeutic Modalities
11:31 - Middle School Gang Story
19:20 - Evolution of Therapeutic Modalities
23:32 - EMDR Therapy for Trauma Processing
40:00 - Integrating EMDR and Ketamine
48:51 - Working with Grief and Loss
58:00 - The Meaning of Life According to April
1:02:02 - Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
1:06:00 - Wrap Up and Look Ahead

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When Richard Brockman was seven years old his mother died by suicide.  He went on to become an expert in trauma and suicide, and is now a Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia, Psychoanalyst, Playwright, Author and my mentor and friend.   He recently published his memoir, Life After Death: Surviving Suicide, which tells his story of loss and healing from both a first person and a neuroscience perspective.  

In this conversation you will learn much about how to heal trauma from perspectives of story, neuroscience, and meaning.

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Produced by Dirk Winter and Violet Chernoff

Timestamps
0:17 - Healing Trauma and Surviving Suicide

10:43 - Personal Connection's Impact in Psychiatry

25:29 - Questioning Freud's Theories in Therapy

30:15 - Understanding Meaning and Story in Psychology

42:04 - Trauma, Story, and Healing

50:31 - Healing Trauma Through Love and Storytelling

1:04:03 - Healing Trauma and Finding Gratitude

1:10:45 - Taking Steps Towards Healing and Recovery

1:17:38 - Healing and the Meaning of Life

1:26:28 - Appreciation, Friendship, and Future Plans

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In this episode I discuss how a year end review can help us prioritize and plan for the year ahead.  I review what I have learned from this podcast so far and look ahead toward upcoming episodes and topics in 2024.

Produced by Dirk Winter and Violet Chernoff

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